Owls 3

Owls 3 

Plate 17 in Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte by Captain Thomas Brown, published by Frazer and Co, Edinburgh, 1835. 

Alexander Wilson (1766 – 1813) was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. Born in Paisley, Wilson is thought to be the greatest American ornithologist prior to Audubon. 

The owls in the print are a great horned owl, a long-eared owl, and two mottled owls, pictured against a background of gray oak and persimmon and red birch. 

A copy of the Illustrations of the American Ornithology is held in the National Library of Scotland’s collections.